USA > Indiana > Vigo County > Terre Haute > Greater Terre Haute and Vigo County : closing the first century's history of city and county, showing the growth of their people, industries and wealth > Part 29
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LORENZO BARNHART, a well known farmer of Sugar Creek township, has been identified with the interests of Vigo county since his arrival within its borders, in 1874, with the exception of eighteen months spent in California and a similar period spent in Michigan. He now owns a fine estate of four hundred and fifty-three acres in Sugar Creek township, also has city property in Terre Haute and is a stockholder in a corporation boring for oil on his land. His time and attention are now almost wholly given to his agricultural labors, although in years past he worked at various employments, carpentering, plastering and coal mining.
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Mr. Barnhart was born in Genesee county. Michigan, December 25, 1851, a son of William and Ardilla (Luce) Barnhart, both of whom were born in Ohio and died in Michigan. The father was also a farmer. They became the parents of twenty children, of whom Lorenzo was the next to the youngest, and nine of the number are still living. Lorenzo Barnhart left his parents farm home when a boy of ten and since that early age has taken care of himself. In 1871 he went to Vermilion county, Indiana, where he resided for three years, and from there came to Vigo county to cast in his lot with its early residents. He is an inde- pendent voter and is a member of the Maccabees lodge, of Terre Haute.
On the 10th of February, 1875, Mr. Barnhart was united in mar- riage with Margaret Ellen Smith, born in Vermilion county, Indiana, February 10, 1860, and of their twelve children seven are now living : Nellie, the wife of John Starke, and they reside on her father's farm; Wal- ter and Homer, who also farm their father's land, and Clyde, Eddie, Leon- ard and Harvey, with their parents. Mr. and Mrs. Barnhart have in their possession one of the parchment deeds executed under the hand of Presi- dent Van Buren and bearing the date of March 15, 1837. This is the second deed of the kind found so far in Vigo county and it is a valuable relic.
LINDSEY E. GOSNELL .- Among the earliest families to establish their home in Vigo county is numbered the Gosnells, and in its township of Sugar Creek. Andrew J. Gosnell, whose name is so prominently asso- ciated with the early business and navigation interests of Terre Haute, was born December 29, 1829, and he yet resides in the city. Leaving the farm on which he was reared, at the age of sixteen, he learned the gunsmith's trade and worked at it for a number of years, and during that time also followed boating on the river during the summer months, running flat boats from Terre Haute to New Orleans. He holds a cap- tain's license on all western waters, and the exciting scenes of river 'boating in the early days are familiar to him in every detail. Since the war he has supported the principles of the Republican party, formerly affiliating with the Democracy. and he is a member of the Masonic lodge in Terre Haute. Mrs. Gosnell is a member of the United Brethren church. She bore the maiden name of Isabelle Eddington and was born in Fayette township, Vigo county, in 1835. Of their large family of ten children nine are living: Charles J., of Terre Haute: Frank D., with his father and mother in that city ; Lindsey E., the subject of this review: William E. and Henry H., also Terre Haute; Allen E., deceased: Laura B., the wife of J. D. Greenley, of Terre Haute: Mary Elizabeth, a graduate of
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Union Hospital of that city, and now a trained nurse; Ada L., the wife of John Bard, of Brazil, Indiana, and George E., of Terre Haute.
Lindsey E. Gosnell received his educational training in the public schools of his native city of Terre Haute, where he was born April 6, 1861, and when he was sixteen he went to the home of his maternal grandparents and farmed there until he was about twenty-three. He then began boating on the Wabash river in the capacity of mate. con- tinuing as a river boatman for ten years during the summer months, and in the winters he worked in the mills. During three years he was also a mail carrier in Terre Haute. this having been during the Harrison administration, and for a number of years afterward was in the employ of the different express companies, spending four years with the Adams Company, two years with the United States and one year with the American. In 1889 he bought eight acres of land in section 26, Sugar Creek township, having since added to his landed interests, and for a number of years has been quite extensively engaged in berry and truck farming, finding a ready market for his products at home. He is a Re- publican and a member of the Masonic fraternity in Terre Haute and of the Knights of Pythias in West Terre Haute.
In December. 1892, Mr. Gosnell married Clara A. Peters, who was born in Fayette township in 1864 and died in 1893. In 1898 he married Sidney B. Fuqua, born at Sanford, Indiana, February 20, 1865, and she was reared and educated in that city. No children were born of either union. Both Mr. and Mrs. Gosnell are members of the Methodist church at Terre Haute.
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REV. AUGUSTINE RIEHLE has long and earnestly labored in the Master's cause as the priest in St. Mary's. He is a man of superior at- tainments and was well fitted for his high calling by an excellent train- ing. He first attended parochial schools of his native city of Cincinnati and later became a student in St. Mary's of the West, more commonly known as Mt. St. Mary's, of that city, where he graduated in 1876. He then entered St. Meinrad Seminary of Indiana, and was ordained to the priesthood June 15. 1879, by Bishop Chatard. After his ordination he came direct to St. Mary's, Vigo county, he being the third priest to preside in the present church building. His work at first extended over three counties, Parke, Vermilion and Vigo, but the territory is now pre- sided overy by four priests, their united efforts performing the work which was long accomplished by the one earnest laborer.
Rev. Father Riehle was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, February 7, 1854, a son of Martin and Anastasia (Eckstein) Riehle, both of whom were
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born in Germany. The father, whose natal day was November 11, 1821, died on the 9th of December, 1902, but he is still survived by his wife, who was born April. 9, 1826, and she yet maintains her residence in Cin- cinnati. Mr. Riehle, the father, followed the trade of a mechanic. Rev. A. Riehle is an independent voter politically.
GEORGE S. GLICK .- George S. Glick, the proprietor of a farm in Sugar Creek township, and who recently conducted the only milk route in West Terre Haute, was born in the city of Terre Haute, December 3. 1856, a son of Abraham and Lydia Ann (Anderson) Glick. The mother was born in Pickaway county, Ohio, and died in 1858. Abraham Glick, the father, was born in Fairfield county, Ohio, July 3, 1825, and his father was a native of Pennsylvania. During ten years of his early life, from 1849 until 1859, Abraham Glick was a general merchant in Terre Haute, and then purchasing one hundred and sixty acres of land in Sugar Creek township, section 34, he turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, and at the time of his death, June 18, 1900, he was the owner of a valuable estate of two hundred and forty acres. He was very suc- cessful both as a merchant and farmer, and was a Republican politically.
Mr. Glick was three times married, and became the father of three sons by his first union, to Lydia Ann Anderson-Luther, a resident of Terre Haute: Charles, who died in infancy, and George, of this review. Mr. Glick married secondly Catherine Ray, and their three children were Emma J., the wife of John N. Broadhurst, of Terre Haute; Clara B., the wife of Irwin Hardesty, in Indian Territory, and Martin Ray, de- ceased. For his third wife he married Caroline Bell, whom he also sur- vived in death, and there were no children by the third and last marriage.
George S. Glick has spent almost his entire life in this section of Sugar Creek township, receiving his education in its district schools, and he remained at home until his father's death. With the exception of a short time when he was the proprietor of a feed store in Terre Haute he has farmed the old homestead since entering upon his business career, and he now owns sixty-six acres of the original farm, which was de- voted principally to dairy purposes. The product of this dairy was con- sumed in West Terre Haute, where he conducted the only milk wagon of the town. He is now only in the stock raising and farming business. As did his father, Mr. Glick supports the principles of the Republican party, and is a member of the Ute Tribe of Red Men, Lodge No. 152, of Terre Haute.
On the 22d of August, 1885, he married Effie H. Coler, who was born in Ross county, Ohio, April 6, 1862, a daughter of William and
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mary De Camp
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J. B. De Comp
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Lurinda (Connell) Coler, both of whom were born in Hardy county, Virginia. They were also married in that state, from whence they sub- sequently moved to Ohio, and from there Mrs. Coler came to Indiana. Mrs. Glick was one of their nine children, six of whom are now living, and she was reared and educated in western Indiana and eastern Illinois, and remained at home until her marriage. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Glick, namely: Walter C., born in 1886, was a student in the Brown Business College of Terre Haute, and is associated with the National Insurance Company, now of Los Angeles, California ; Elsie B., born August II, 1888, is a graduate of the district schools: Abraham was born May 12, 1890; Luther A. was born September 12, 1892, and graduated in class of 1908, and Willard Anderson, born November 17. 1897, is in fifth grade. Mrs. Glick is a member of the Congregational church at West Terre Haute.
JOHN B. DECAMP is one of the most prominent business men of West Terre Haute, well known as a general merchant at the corner of Market street and National avenue and as the president of the Northern Oil, Gas and Mineral Company, which has its headquarters at Little Rock, Arkansas, and Brazil, and also owns the DeCamp block on Paris avenue. He owns other property in this city and is a real estate owner in Brazil, Indiana.
Mr. DeCamp is of French parentage and was born at Knightsville, Clay county, Indiana, March 26, 1871, to John B., Sr., and Sophia (Van Devoir) DeCamp. The father was born in France June 26, 1840, and coming to the United States in 1863, located first in Danville, Illinois. The mother, who was born in France in 1847, crossed the ocean on the same vessel with her husband, and during the trip across they became acquainted, and she, too, came on to Danville, Illinois. They later moved to East St. Louis and in the same year were married there, in 1863. About one year later they removed to Shotwell, Kentucky, but in the following year returned to Danville and after remaining there a few months continued their journey to Brazil, the husband walking the en- tire distance from Danville to Brazil, since no railroad was constructed at that time between those towns. That city has ever since been their home, where Mr. DeCamp is living retired from his former work as a miner. He is a Democrat in his political affiliations. Of their two sons, the younger, Arthur, was born in 1873, and is now a stationary engineer at Farmersburg, Sullivan county, Indiana.
John B. DeCamp, the first born, was reared and educated in Brazil, this state, and starting out in life for himself at the age of nineteen he
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worked as a coal miner until his twenty-third year. He had begun work as a miner, however, when a little lad of eight years, and during the following fifteen years he worked almost continually at that occupation, abandoning it to engage in the grocery business for himself at Brazil, Indiana, where he built up a large patronage and remained there for sixteen months. During the following four years he was the proprietor of a store at Perth, seven miles north of Brazil. He was burned out there and reopened his store at Diamond, two miles north, where he conducted a general store for five years, and at the close of that period he sold his interests there and opened his store in West Terre Haute, where a large and lucrative trade has been accorded him and he is one of the success- ful merchants of the city.
On the 12th of October. 1891, Mr. DeCamp married Mary Caudron, who was born in France. March 25. 1873. but two years after her birth her parents, Osee and Jenevieve Caudron, came to the United States, and both are now deceased. Mrs. DeCamp received her education in the common schools of Brazil. Four children have been born of this union, namely: Sophia, born September 15. 1892: Mary, born June 10, 1893 ; John B., Jr., born September 15. 1894, and Arthur, born October 6, 1901. Mrs. DeCamp is a member of the First Methodist Episcopal church at Brazil. Mr. DeCamp belongs to the Knights of Pythias Fraternity, No. 565. at Brazil. Indiana, and the Blue Lodge of Masons. No. 264, of Brazil. In politics he supports the principles of the Democratic party.
EMANUEL GORMONG, a farmer in Honey Creek township, was born in the eastern part of Virginia. December 30, 1842. a son of Emanuel and Rebecca (Shippe) Gormong, natives, respectively, of Pennsylvania and Virginia. They were married in the Old Dominion state, but in 1863 left their home there for the west and located in Clark county, Illinois, where they bought eighty acres of land and continued to reside for ten years. They then became residents of Terre Haute, purchasing a home on First street, near Main, and there Mr. Gormong spent the remainder of his life. His widow now resides in this city with a daughter. He followed agriculture as a life occupation. In the early days he voted with the Whigs and while in Virginia held the office of supervisor, and he also belonged to the Home Militia there, and was a member of a fife and drum corps. Ten children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Gormong, namely : Jonas, who owns and resides on a fine farm south of Nashville, Tennessee : Charles, Calvin, James and Martha, deceased : Emanuel, of this sketch; Ann Rebecca, the widow of W. Hall, and a resident of Terre Haute: Mary, deceased ; Richardson, of Terre Haute, and Caro- line, deceased. The parents were devout members of the Baptist church.
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Emanuel Gormong remained with his father on the farm until twenty years of age. and going then to Belmont county, Ohio, he worked on a farm by the month for one year. At the close of that period he returned to Illinois, and in September of 1864 enlisted as a private in the Fifty- seventh Indiana Infantry, and served until the close of the conflict in 1865. During his military career he served in the battles of Franklin and Nashville, Tennessee, and in compensation for his services as a Civil war soldier he now receives a pension of seventeen dollars a month. After returning from the war he drifted about in the different states for three or four years and finally settled in Clark county, where he farmed for about two years. Coming thence to Terre Haute, he was for fifteen years an engineer in a flouring mill, for one year was an engineer in a nail factory, and during the following two years he lived retired in this city. In 1885 he bought forty-five acres of land in Honey Creek town- ship, Vigo county, and has since been engaged in farming. He is a Republican and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Morton Post, at Terre Haute.
During the dark days of the Rebellion, Mr. Gormong's father was a heavy loser, since all of his wheat, corn, cattle and horses were con- fiscated by the Confederates. The notes of obligation given for his prop- erty proved to be almost worthless. This was a heavy loss since Mr. Gormong was a thrifty man and had accumulated considerable personal property at that time. Politically he was a stalwart advocate of Repub- licanism. Jonas Gormong, brother of Emanuel, while at his home in the south was forced to accompany the Federal troops, and as several of his rebel neighbors claimed that he was a spy, accordingly, upon his return home, he was arrested and cast into prison. The Federals heard of the false accusation and they returned and put under arrest seven of these rebels, and said: "Now when you release Jonas Gormong we will liberate you," which was quickly done.
Mr. Gormong married, in 1868, Cynthia Jones, who was born in Ohio in 1844, and died in February, 1904. She received her educational training in her native state of Ohio, and afterward moved with her parents to Illinois. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Gormong : Edward HI., who owns and farms sixty acres of land in Honey Creek township; Herbert, who is married and farms sixty acres of land in this township; Frank, at home with his father, as is also the daughter, Gertrude, and Harry, the eldest child, is deceased. Mrs. Gormong was a member of the Presbyterian church.
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JOHN ROYSE .- On the banks of the Potomac river, in Hampshire county, West Virginia, November 3, 1790, there was born into the world Samuel Royse, who was destined to play a conspicuous part in the de- velopment of the agricultural resources of Vigo county. When a youth of eighteen, in January, 1808, he journeyed to Butler county, Ohio, and there he met the lady who afterward became his wife, Martha Nichol, and they were married there on the 3d of February, 1829. She was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, November 3, 1795, and had moved to Butler county, Ohio, in 1804. It was on the 26th of November, 1855, that the Royse family arrived in Vigo county, where the husband and father at once resumed his chosen occupation of agriculture, and his name in prominently associated with those who cleared the forests and developed the wild lands of Honey Creek township. He supported and upheld the principles of the Democracy, and Mrs. Royse was a member of the United Presbyterian church. In their family were seven children, but all but two have passed away, namely: George, born February 26, 1830, and died January 19, 1896; Daniel and Katherine, twins, born December 29, 1831, but the daughter died in infancy and the son on the 12th of July, 1881 : Thomas, born August 30, 1833, and resides in Honey Creek township; Samuel, born in 1835, and died in 1838; John, the subject of this review, and Samuel, born December 6, 1839, and died April 4, 1894. The parents both died in Honey Creek township, the mother on the 19th of September. 1862, and on the 9th of January, 1870, the father was also laid to rest.
One of the younger sons of these honored pioneers of Vigo county, John Royse, was born in Butler county, Ohio, November 27. 1837, and in the county which gave him birth he grew to manhood's estate and received a common school education, and he remained with his father on the farm until the latter's death. The farm which the father pur- chased on coming to Vigo county consisted of one hundred and sixty acres in section 3. Honey Creek township, and this old homestead is still owned by John Royse and his son. With his brother, George, Mr. Royse made his first purchase of land in 1867, in section 4, Honey Creek town- ship, but two years later he purchased eighty acres in section 8, where he has since lived and labored, and in after years he added one hundred and sixty acres to the boundaries of the original purchase, making the home- stead farm a large and valuable tract of two hundred and forty acres. In 1895 he built thereon one of the finest residences in Vigo county, a frame structure thirty-six by sixty feet in dimensions. He also owns a farm of one hundred and fifty-five acres in section 16, Honey Creek town- ship. As did his father, Mr. Royse supports by his ballot the Democratic
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party, and from 1873 until 1879 he served as the county superintendent of public schools. To him belongs the honor of being the first county superintendent in Indiana after the passing of the law organizing that office. He is a charter member of the Grange No. I.
On the 26th of September, 1871, Mr. Royse married Lavinia Mann, who was born in Sullivan county, Indiana, October 31, 1846, a daughter of James B. and Fidelia Ann (Turman) Mann. The father is deceased, but the mother is still living and is a resident of Sullivan county. She was born January 31, 1825. Mrs. Royse received her educational train- ing in the public schools of her native county of Sullivan and in the well known educational institution, St. Mary-of-the-Woods, and by her mar- riage she has become the mother of two children. The elder, James Samuel, was born December 19, 1872, and resides on the old Royse farm in this township. He married, October 11, 1900, Mabel Jeannette Tuller, and they have two children, John Tuller, born September 25, 1901, and James Samuel, Jr., born November 18, 1906. Fidelia, the only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Royse, was born November 28, 1879, and is the wife of Arthur Dale Kidder, a government engineer. They reside with her father.
HENRY BECKEL, who is prominently identified with the agricultural interests of Honey Creek township, Vigo county, was born in the father- land of Germany, February 19, 1832, a son of Henry and Elizabeth (Frank) Beckel, who were born, reared and spent their lives in the fatherland, the father dying at the age of seventy-three, and the mother when she had reached the age of seventy-eight. In their family were four children, namely: William, Henry, John and Carrie, but all are now deceased with the exception of the second born.
When a lad of nineteen years Henry Beckel came to the United States, and during his first fifteen years in this country he worked at the butcher's trade in Baltimore, Maryland, and was also for one season with a large packing house in Wheeling, West Virginia. From Balti- more he went to Indianapolis, Indiana, where for a time he was ill. and going thence to Louisville, Kentucky, he continued in the butcher busi- ness in that city for eight or ten years. About the year of 1865 he came to Terre Haute, and for about ten years following was engaged in buying and selling cattle, and then trading his house and lot in Terre Haute for one hundred and fifty acres of land in Honey Creek township he turned his attention to agricultural pursuits. With the passing years he has won success in the calling, and his estate now numbers three hun- dred and forty acres.
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Mr. Beckel married Riga Seylocker, and their nine children are: George, deceased ; Henry, who married Molly Fales, and died on the Ist of November, 1907: Fred, who has been twice married, his first wife being Miss Hines : Charlie, deceased : William, an employe of the government in the capacity of a conductor on the Panama canal; Liza, the wife of John Hendy, of Prairieton township, Vigo county; Carrie, the wife of Tanse Flesher, who resides in the same township, and Ger- trude, who is unmarried and is living in Terre Haute. Mr. Beckel upholds the principles and policies of the Democratic party.
ULYSSES BLOCKSON .- No better known or more honored family exists in Vigo county than the Blocksons, who have been intimately as- sociated with its development and increasing prosperity since an early epoch in its history. The ancestry is traced to the southland of Mary- land, where was born the father of Ulysses, William Blockson, in 1778. On the 9th of October, 1816, he came with his parents to Honey Creek township, Vigo county, Indiana. and in his early business life flatboated corn down the river to New Orleans and later drove a transportation wagon. For a time he also operated the only threshing machine in Vigo county, and after abandoning the transportation business he purchased four hundred acres of land in Honey Creek township and began farm- ing. His first wife lived but four years after her marriage, leaving at her death one child, Eliza, now deceased, and by his second marriage to Edna Adkinson he had eight children-Julia, Ulysses, Mary Jane, Wes- ley Simson, Boyd Hamilton, Elnora Belle, William Alonzo and Edna Allis. Mr. Blockson, the father, voted with the Republican party and his wife was a Methodist.
Ulysses Blockson, born on his father's farm, in section 29, Honey Creek township, Vigo county, remained at home and assisted his father until he was of age. For three years thereafter he farmed the home place, and he then bought a tract of forty acres, while by a subsequent purchase he became the owner of two hundred and twenty acres and now has an estate of nine hundred acres in Vigo county. In addition to this valuable homestead farm he also owns 2,479 acres in Briscoe and Swisher counties, Texas, thus making him one of the largest land holders in this section of Indiana.
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